Chapter 4

That night they didn't sleep much. After their rooms had gone dark they headed into the other room together. The night watch didn't see them leave their rooms and in the morning noticed they were gone. They rushed into the rooms and found them all empty. They ran to the other room and found it empty as well. The kids were actually all hiding under the table but no one saw them. They left and the one from Dabi's room left his door open by accident. Last night they had all hijacked their cameras to play an infinite loop so it looked like no one was there. All four of them crept through the door to Dabi's room and out into the hall. They headed to the room next door which appeared empty. Zuri picked the lock and swung the door open.

"Thank you." A voice whispered

"Can you help us?" Dabi said "We need to be invisible so we can rescue the others and escape."

"Of course."

They all disappeared although they could still see each other. They could also now see the voice belonged to a young boy around six or seven. His power turned him invisible permanently but when he used it on others they could see him. Zuri motioned for them to follow her and they headed to all the rooms releasing the children. They ranged from three to sixteen and all seemed excited to be free. After they were all free they came upon the baby section. There were four babies in there, the oldest being around eighteen months. They picked them each up and a young girl named Willow took their voices so they wouldn't cry. By now they had a group of scientists searching for them but nobody could find them. The group had grown to at least twenty different kids each with a unique power. They walked right out the front door and stole one of the trucks. Seeing as none of the kids knew how to drive, Zuri set the oldest to the task and loaded the others into the back. They drove to the old abandoned shed and unloaded. Then a girl touched the car, shrinking it down so it was nearly invisible. They headed inside where many kids seemed surprised by the sleeping bags in the corner.

"Welcome everyone." Zuri said "You can make us visible again." She said to the invisible boy "This is our new home. They might come look for us here so be ready to hide at any moment. As of right now there's only three sleeping bags but we can work on getting more."

One young boy raised his hand.

"Yes. What's your name?"

"I'm Leo."

"Well Leo, what's your question?"

"I have a multiplying power. I can make more sleeping bags but I can only multiply each once a day."

"Well if that works for everyone else we'll have no one use them until we have enough so it's fair. Ok?'

Almost everyone nodded in agreement and Leo touched each sleeping bag until there were six instead of three. A girl raised her hand and pointed to a mask over her mouth.

"Can somebody help her get that off?"

Mira stepped up to her and melted it off with her spit. She kept it carefully controlled so it wouldn't melt the girl and allowed the extra to seep into her skin around the edges of her mouth where the mask had cut it.

"Wow, thank you." The girl said her voice raspy "I'm Aiko. They put that mask on me since I can command people to do anything I want. They were scared of me."

"Well, Aiko you're safe here," Dabi said walking up to her

Police sirens started outside.

"Quick everyone hide." Zuri yelled, "Invisible boy can you hide us?"

"My name's Max." He mumbled as everyone disappeared

They still dispersed to the edges of the room and the police entered. While she was hiding Mira found a ladder which she climbed slowly. At the top, there was a row of four rooms each with a bed and a desk inside. She ducked inside one of the rooms and waited for the police to leave. While she was waiting she set her teddy bear gently on the bed. She had carried him with her since he was so special to her. Luckily for her, the police didn't find the ladder and soon gave up their search. Everyone was cautious to come out of hiding until they heard the police sirens moving away.

"Everybody ok?" asked Zuri

Everyone said yes and they went back to what they had been doing before. A lot of the kids had some kind of binding to stop them from harming anyone. Those were all removed while Mira continued to stay upstairs. She liked her new room she had found and no one seemed to notice she was gone. In one of the other rooms, she found a bin full of dolls she began lugging back to her room. That's when someone noticed her.

"Do you guys hear that sound?" a boy asked, "Sounds like someone's dragging something."

"Anyone in here!?" Zuri called

Mira peeped her head over the railing.

"It's me the Boogeyman," she said making her voice as deep as possible

Zuri spotted her upstairs "Alright then Mr. Boogeyman. What are you doing up there?"

"I found a bin full of dolls!." Mira called excitedly forgetting about her act "Who wants to come play with me?"

A bunch of the younger kids ran to the ladder and Zuri followed. She carried the bin down and the kids pulled out the dolls happily.

"Look, this girl has red hair like me!" Mira said holding up a doll with red curls

"But your hair's pink." A girl around four said

"Well it is now but it used to be red."

As Mira was having fun one of the other kids had taken interest in Teddy. He crawled forward and tried to grab him from where he was next to her. Mira quickly grabbed the bear away from him.

"Leave him alone! He's mine," she yelled

The boy began to scream and tears streamed down his face. An older girl came up to him.

"Come on Jack." She said, "Why don't you play with the dolls?"

He shook his head and pointed at Teddy

"You're Mira right?" The older girl asked. Mira nodded "I'm Kelsey, Jack's older sister. Could he maybe use your bear?"

"No! He's mine from home. Where's his item?"

"I don't know. He's young, hardly even a year old. He used to have a bear exactly like yours. He might think it's his."

"It's from my dad but here" She dug around in the dolls "he can have this."

She handed Kelsey a cute little bear doll which she handed over to Jack. He took it and happily started playing.

"Thank you," Kelsey said

She reached out as if to pat Mira's head but quickly rethought it and pulled her hand away. She walked off and Jack crawled after her with his bear doll in hand. At that point, Mira had called Dabi's attention and he came over to see what had happened. Just when he walked over a kid took a doll from the bin revealing an old worn Endeavor plush. Dabi quickly grabbed it and squeezed in lightly. The flames light up and glew softly. Dabi quickly tucked it away in his coat pocket and crouched down next to Mira.

"What'd that kid want?" He asked her

"He tried to take my bear. I gave him a different one instead."

"Well good job but it's getting late. How about we put the dolls away and get ready for bed? I'll even tell you all a story about a superhero."

"Ok but won't it get cold."

"Those beds upstairs should have blankets. We can use those."

Dabi told all the kids to clean up their dolls. He sent a small team to retrieve the blankets and pillows off the beds. He had Leo multiply each blanket and pillow. Soon they had thirty blankets and fifty pillows. They built a small fort and each person got their own blanket plus they lined the floor with the extras. Soon they had a comfortable spot to sleep and Dabi began his story.

"Once there was a young boy named Toya. Toya's father was a famous hero who loved his family very much. He had a fire power and was the number two most powerful hero named Endeavor. Of his four children, Toya was the oldest although he had a much more powerful flame than his father's. His glew blue although his father's was only orange. His only daughter Fuyumi had his wife's ice quirk as did his second son Natsuo. His youngest son however had received both his fire power and his wife's ice one. His name was Shoto and although he didn't like to admit it he was Endeavor's favorite. Toya was jealous of Shoto and so he decided to go to hero school hoping he could become his father's favorite. He trained for years and years until something magical happened. He suddenly unlocked his mother's ice power and was able to control both fire and ice just like his brother. Soon he grew in power surpassing both his mother and father before eventually becoming the number one hero. His father was very proud of him and they lived happily ever after. The end."

Nobody could see but there were tears in Dabi's eyes as he finished his story. All the younger children had fallen asleep and soon after he finished the others started dropping like flies. Soon everyone was asleep except Dabi or so he thought. He snuck out of the shed and pulled the Endeavor plush out of his pocket. Zuri quickly appeared behind him.

"What's that?" she asked

"What's what?" He responded stuffing the doll away

"Don't play dumb."

"Fine" He pulled the doll back out "It's an Endeavor plush. It belonged to a friend of mine."

"How'd it end up here then?"

"I think this is the daycare I used to go to when I was younger. My friend's name was Keigo. He used to come here too. He always carried this doll with him until one day he lost it. He never found it again but I know this is it. See this stain here." He turned the doll over and pointed to a dark stain in Endeavor's hair. "We were sharing a chocolate bar and his piece melted. It dripped onto his doll. He cried forever when it didn't come out. I haven't forgotten about him but he probably wouldn't recognize me now anyway."

"What do you mean he wouldn't be able to recognize you?"

"Well, I've grown up. A lot has happened. I didn't always have these scars you know." he motioned to the purple bits of skin "Burned myself by accident"

"That's why my skin looks like this." Zuri motioned to her patchwork skin "It was all this color until a few days ago" She pointed to a spot of her original skin

"Well, aren't we a pair?"

They sat a long time in silence staring at the stars

"Do you think you'd still recognize him?" Zuri asked

"I could recognize him anywhere."

Dabi thought about his friend's bright red wings. He could still see the young child he once was inside him today. They again sat in silence and Zuri leaned her head gently on Dabi's shoulder. He leaned into her calmly and they fell asleep beneath the stars.